Marvel at the works of Yasujiro Ozu and Hirokazu Kore-eda in Bangor with Pontio's Tokyo Tales season

MASTERWORKS by two of cinema's most humane auteurs will receive a welcome homecoming to the silver screen in Bangor this week.

A season of 'Tokyo Tales' by Japanese film pioneer Yasujiro Ozu and modern master Hirokazu Kore-eda begins on Thursday, June 13, with four unforgettable films sure to reaffirm Pontio's outstanding reputation for offering the most inspired of international programmes on the North Wales coast.

As Tokyo comes into the spotlight this autumn with the Rugby World cup followed by the 2020 Olympics, this season is the perfect primer to the almost impenetrable megalopolis, as well as the incomprehensibly under-appreciated legacy of Japanese cinema.

Beginning with a welcome return of Kore-eda's triumphant Cannes 2018 Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters - on Thursday at 8.15pm following a first screening earlier this year - the season starts with the perfect opportunity to dip a toe into the deep running waters of this incredible film maker's tenderly felt vision of home and an unconventional, impoverished family unit.

Cinema is famous for being an art form obsessed with innovation, always advancing and looking forward but sometimes great film makers can remind us that we, as people and families, aren’t so easy to update and improve.

This has perhaps never been more definitively stated than in Ozu's towering 1953 film Tokyo Story, a heart wrenching tale of generations and working life regularly voted among the best films ever made which screens on Saturday, June 15 at 8.15pm.

Subtle, sensitive and each a crowning achievement of what cinema can achieve, these movies bookend the rich history of Japan's unique perspective on the human condition.

While it would be grossly understating Kore-eda's darkly comic talent to suggest he is merely updating Ozu's work, the films presented here show how, from the early days of cinema, the passing of time can accentuate rather than eradicate the similarities between people then and people now.

To further present this universal truth, Tokyo Tales will finish with a poetically selected double bill that looks forward into Ozu's utterly singular talent with An Autumn Afternoon on Wednesday 19 at 5.30pm, followed by a look back to Kore-eda's beginnings with his visually stunning 1996 debut Maborosi at 8.15pm.

Any self respecting cinephile simply must take this voyage through one of the richest cultural lineages of the past 100 years.

Tickets for each screening are £7.50, with concessions available. To book visit pontio.co.uk or call the box office on 01248 382828.

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